From reflective to diffractive practices in assessment: Latinx narratives and plants

This article critiques reflective practices by proposing diffractive practices that decentralize the role of humans and can be implemented in the UK’s higher education (HE) sector. This means suggesting a shift in scholarly thinking by demonstrating that learning and teaching in HE can develop when we make our subjects ecocentric rather than anthropocentric. The argument is that students and academics can contribute to understanding diffractive practices by considering five droplets: more-than-humans, students, peers and mentors, ways of knowing, and personal experience. Each droplet is analysed by considering artworks, essays, surveys, peers’ feedback, and an academic journal, among others. The outcomes of each droplet can provide a ground basis for understanding the kinship that students and academics have with more-than-humans. The examples in each droplet result from an action research project in which common themes were identified to analyse summative assessments, subsequent from a course on Latinx narratives in which plants played a central role.